Hypericum albiflorum (Nomenclature)
Perennial herb 0.25–0.54 m tall, erect from taproot, with stems up to c. 4, unbranched below inflorescence. Stems terete or rarely slightly 2-lined below leaf, black-gland-dotted, glabrous, green; internodes 18–30 mm, exceeding leaves. Leaves sessile to 0.5 mm petiolate, erect to ascending, green above, glaucous beneath; lamina 20–35 × 2–8 mm, narrowly oblong or oblanceolate to linear, discolorous, chartaceous, glabrous; apex rounded, margin plane to recurved?, base rounded to cuneate; venation: 2–3 pairs of main veins from lower half of midrib, not visibly branching or reticulating; laminar glands pale, obscure and black, scattered; marginal glands black, subregular. Inflorescence c. 20–50-flowered from 8–9 nodes, sometimes with flowering branches from up to 3 nodes below, the whole narrowly pyramidal to narrowly cylindric; pedicels 1–2 mm, relatively slender; bracts and bracteoles linear, shortly black-glandular-ciliate or usually entire. Flowers 16–24 mm in diam.; buds ovoid to cylindric, subacute to obtuse. Sepals subequal, basally united, 2.5–3.5 × 0.7–1 mm, oblong, obtuse to rounded, glandular-ciliate; veins 3, unbranched, ± impressed (‘sepals ribbed’); laminar glands black and/or pale, linear, proximal and black, elongate to punctiform, distal; marginal glands black. Petals white or white veined red or wholly suffused pink or rarely pale yellow, 8–11 × 3–4 mm, c. 3 × sepals, oblanceolate, rounded, apiculus absent; laminar glands pale, linear to punctiform and sometimes 1(–2) black, punctiform; marginal glands black, regular. Stamens c. 35, longest 6–c. 8.5 mm, 0.75 × petals. Ovary c. 1.8 × 0.7 mm, narrowly pyramidal-ovoid; styles 3, c. 3 mm, 1.6 × ovary. Capsule and Seeds not seen.
2n = 18 (Tokur, 1995, as H. aviculariifolium var. albiflorum).
Calcareous or serpentine rocky ground or sand under Pinus; 10–300 m.
Turkey (extreme southwesten Anatolia).
Hypericum albiflorum is related to both H. trachyphyllum and H. aviculariifolium. In some characters it is intermediate between these species (e.g. inflorescence shape and sepal shape); but in others it differs from both (e.g. ribbed sepals, pale yellow, white or pink petals, geographical distribution and often leaf shape). It would therefore seem to deserve specific rank.
The unusual petal colour in H. albiflorum results from the paucity or usually absence of the yellow flavonoid normally present in Hypericum or its replacement by a white one. The anthocyanin that produces red tinges in yellow petals is seen as pink on the white background (cf. Robson, 1981: 84). A white-petalled form of a usually yellow-petalled species occurs in Luzon (Philippine) populations of H. geminiflorum (Sect. 4. Takasagoya) (Robson, 1985).